Food products can be packaged individually or in groups. When food products are packaged in groups each individual food product needs to be sorted, organized, and transferred prior to packaging. Conventionally, one machine is used to sort the food product, another machine is used to organize the food product, and still another machine is used to transport the sorted and organized food products to a packaging device. Alternatively, each food product can be individually transported to the packaging device until the predetermined number of food products within the group are provided to the packaging device. However, these methods undesirably increase packaging time and require numerous machines to perform the process.
Therefore, a need exists for food handling machinery and methods that improve upon prior food handling machinery and methods and solves problems inherent in known food handling machinery and methods.